This Day in History – The Final Wagerhttp://thefinalwager.com
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 00:47:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.1425 Jan 1858: a royal “Wedding March” debuthttp://thefinalwager.com/2016/01/25/1858-felix-mendelssohn-wedding-march/
http://thefinalwager.com/2016/01/25/1858-felix-mendelssohn-wedding-march/#respondMon, 25 Jan 2016 18:38:04 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=15557On this day in 1858, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” was played at the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter. It has since become a staple of the ceremony.

The piece is typically used as a recessional; on the other end, “Here Comes the Bride” is the more common name for Richard Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus”.

Some more details:

The piece was originally composed in 1842 to accompany Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Queen Victoria was a huge Mendelssohn fan, and would often host him when he visited from Germany

the wedding was between Victoria, The Princess Royal, and Prince Frederick William of Prussia

Its first use for a wedding was in 1847, but it did not become popular until it got the royal treatment

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2016/01/25/1858-felix-mendelssohn-wedding-march/feed/024 Dec 1865: Ku Klux Klan formedhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/24/1865-ku-klux-klan-formed/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/24/1865-ku-klux-klan-formed/#respondThu, 24 Dec 2015 07:41:10 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=15047Happy 150th birthday to one of the most terrible (yet influential) groups in American history: the Ku Klux Klan! Six Confederate veterans founded the nativist organization on this day in 1865.

There have been several different iterations of the Klan; at its peak in the 1920s, it claimed between 4 and 5 million members. Today, the number of Klan members is estimated at 5,000.

The KKK plays a large role in the Sherlock Holmes short story The Case of the Five Orange Pips. Some more details on the group:

its main goal was to hinder Reconstruction by threatening and murdering blacks, carpetbaggers (northerners who moved south), and scalawags (southern whites who favored Reconstruction)

Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard, inspired the name of Forrest Gump

the Civil Rights Act of 1871 – also known as the “Klan Act” – gave the federal government tools to suppress the KKK, including the ability to suspend habeas corpus

the Klan rose again in 1915 thanks to D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the original group

the first leader was William Joseph Simmons

the members adopted the apparel shown in the film

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/24/1865-ku-klux-klan-formed/feed/019 Dec 1606: Jamestown ships leave Englandhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/19/1606-jamestown-virginia-ships/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/19/1606-jamestown-virginia-ships/#respondSat, 19 Dec 2015 05:10:32 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14912On this day in 1606, three English ships owned by the Virginia Company of London – Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed – set sail to establish a permanent colony in the new world.

After a stop in Puerto Rico, the settlers landed in Virginia the following April. They called their eventual outpost Jamestown, in honor of King James I, who ruled at the time.

Pocahontas eventually married John Rolfe, who started the colony’s tobacco industry

Nathaniel Bacon and his rebels burned the town to the ground in 1676

it served as Virginia’s capital until 1699

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/19/1606-jamestown-virginia-ships/feed/018 Dec 1865: Thirteenth Amendment certifiedhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/18/1865-thirteenth-amendment/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/18/1865-thirteenth-amendment/#respondFri, 18 Dec 2015 12:28:12 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14905On this day in 1865, Secretary of State William Seward announced that the requisite number of states had approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, enshrining the abolition of slavery in the highest law of the land.

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) said that voting rights could not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/18/1865-thirteenth-amendment/feed/011 Dec 1936: Edward VIII abdicateshttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/11/1936-edward-viii-wallis-simpson-abdication/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/11/1936-edward-viii-wallis-simpson-abdication/#commentsFri, 11 Dec 2015 05:10:24 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14760On this day in 1936, King Edward VIII of Great Britain abdicated. He was forced to relinquish the throne after he announced his intent to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée.

Edward VIII ascended to the throne in January 1936 upon the death of his father, George V

his alleged Nazi sympathies increased calls for his resignation

Simpson was the first female named Time‘s person of the year, in 1936

he was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI

1936 is the most recent year with three English kings. There were two others (as asked in this Final clue):

1066: Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, William I

1483: Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/11/1936-edward-viii-wallis-simpson-abdication/feed/110 Dec 1684: Newton shares work on gravityhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/10/1684-isaac-newton-gravity-edmund-halley/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/10/1684-isaac-newton-gravity-edmund-halley/#respondThu, 10 Dec 2015 05:10:43 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14755On this day in 1684, Edmund Halley shared a letter from Isaac Newton with the Royal Society. Coming to be known as De motu corporum in gyrum – “On the motion of bodies in an orbit” – it laid out the principles of gravity.

Newton discovered the force of gravity depended on two characteristics: mass and distance

the work of German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who advanced the idea of heliocentrism, was a key inspiration

Newton’s Principia, published in 1687, fleshed out the ideas put forth in the letter

Voltaire reported Newton’s supposed inspiration by the falling apple

“Gravity Day” is celebrated on December 25, Newton’s birthday

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/10/1684-isaac-newton-gravity-edmund-halley/feed/009 Dec 1935: first Heisman Trophy awardedhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/09/1935-first-heisman-trophy/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/09/1935-first-heisman-trophy/#respondWed, 09 Dec 2015 15:00:20 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14751On this day in 1935, the Downtown Athletic Club named Jay Berwanger, a senior at the University of Chicago, the “most valuable football player in the East.” The honor was soon named for John Heisman, the Club’s director, who died the following year.

It now officially recognizes the “most outstanding player” in college football, who “best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.”

the trophy, which weighs 25 pounds, is modeled after Ed Smith of New York University – a school that no longer has a football team

Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White was the runner-up in 1937

the first African-American winner was Ernie Davis (Syracuse, 1961)

four schools have won the honor in consecutive years: Yale, Army, Ohio State, USC

Archie Griffin (Ohio State) is the only player to win it twice (1974 & 1975)

his story was the focus of the 2008 film The Express

most of the winners have been seniors

first junior: Doc Blanchard (Army, 1945)

first sophomore: Tim Tebow (Florida, 2007)

first freshman: Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M, 2012)

his record for youth was broken in 2013 by Jameis Winston (Florida State)

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/09/1935-first-heisman-trophy/feed/008 Dec 1980: John Lennon killedhttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/08/1980-john-lennon-killed-mark-chapman/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/12/08/1980-john-lennon-killed-mark-chapman/#respondTue, 08 Dec 2015 18:05:04 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14723On this day in 1980, former Beatle John Lennon was killed by Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old with psychological problems.

Lennon’s last photo; Chapman is asking for an autograph. (Phil Goresh)

Some more details on John’s death:

Lennon was returning from Record Plant Studio; he and his wife, Yoko Ono, had been recording a song called “Walking on Thin Ice”

It was also shown as an intro to a theatrical screening of Fantasia in an attempt to receive an Academy Award nomination (it did not)

Jackson’s videos are credited with increasing airtime for black performers on MTV

]]>http://thefinalwager.com/2015/11/30/1982-michael-jackson-thriller/feed/028 Nov 1821: Panama joins Gran Colombiahttp://thefinalwager.com/2015/11/28/1821-panama-independence-gran-colombia/
http://thefinalwager.com/2015/11/28/1821-panama-independence-gran-colombia/#respondSat, 28 Nov 2015 20:24:34 +0000http://thefinalwager.com/?p=14656On this day in 1821, Panama declared independence from Spain and joined a union known as the Republic of Gran Colombia.